Section 3, H.B. 5420, An Act Concerning Mental Health Needs of and Services for Police Officers, Certain Requirements Regarding Police Training and Certain Reports

We have concerns with House Bill 5420 because of the its failure to reduce the role of policing in our communities, particularly with regard to some of our most vulnerable residents when they are in need of medical care for a mental health crisis. As such, we encourage this Committee to re-evaluate its centering of police in mental health care entirely and shift its focus to the use of mental health professionals in crisis interventions.

Public health and social work actors should be the ones to take the lead when addressing mental health crises, not as an auxillary afterthought to police. Rather than continue to entrench the role of police in mental health, this Committee should seek to divest police from this function entirely.